Re: Auto Unlock with Apple Watch

In Beta 2 of Sierra combined with an Apple Watch (watch OS 3 Beta 2) its now possible to aktivate Auto Unlock. I've tried to activate the Checkbox on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) and a Error says, that the Mac couldnt find the Apple Watch. The Watch is on, unlocked and on my wrist. After reboot from Mac and Apple Watch, the option to enable Auto Unlock is not shown anymore.

Had it working for a little while but needed me to disable 2 step authentication via web to then re-enable via System Preferences on mac. Then when signed out of iCloud on my iPhone to sign back in and get it recognised as a trusted device again, the watch option vanished from System Preferences and can't seem to get it back, even after signing back into everything again.

Would be interested to see if anyone else has this type of thing and can get the option to come back again. Was awesome for the 30 minutes while I had it working!

Same here. MacBook Pro Retina 15" Early 2013 and can't see the option....though the relase notes say it should work (The Auto Unlock feature is supported on 2013 and newer Macs). Filed a bug report and waiting for a reply. Cheers,

Same here. Early 2013 MBP 13" Retina. No option under Security and Privacy, although I also read somewhere the watch needs to be paired. Not clear if that's a manual process or is supposed to happen automatically, but there is definitely a pattern here.

Auto Unlock Users may experience no internet connectivity after a successful Auto Unlock, followed by a reboot of their Mac. Workaround: Turning WiFi Off-On on Mac will restore internet connectivity.

After an erase install, it can take minutes for the “Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac” checkbox to show up in Security and Privacy Preferences on your Mac (while your devices are iCloud pairing). This is normal, and does not happen on upgrade installs.

With macOS beta 5, it seems that they may have changed the compatibility list. Where before it said 2013 or later MBP it now says "mid 2013" MBP or later. I find that confusing since I don't think there was a 'mid 2013' at least not in the 15"s (only an early and late)

Does anybody know if this is a new criteria that we can expect into production release or just on the Beta

As you might guess, I'm one with an early 2013 MBP 15" that I've been unable to get to show me the activation setting.

I have the same issue (MBPr Early 2013) issue is we only have a Wifi n module. Apple Watch "time of flight" connectivity only communicates with AC Wifi devices from Mid 2013 onwards. Hardware's insufficient for us lot unfortunately.

I had the same issue with my MBPr Early 2013. The solution: I bought an Apple Wifi AC Card (BCM94360CS) for 20€ at eBay and replaced the original Apple WiFi N Card. Since the first boot of macOS Sierra, Auto Unlock works like charme. (Activated already 2FA several weeks ago). No icloud logout/login necessary.

It sure doesn't seem like anything stands in the way... In fact, my Apple Watch shows up as paired to my Mac now after using "Near Lock". Using MacID now nicely to already unlock my Mac. As long as Apple doesn't disable either MacID or Near Lock, wondering if I care about the macOS version of this feature...

It would be nice to get it working and see the differnce between Apple's integration and the commerical products...

Apple now states this is only supported on Late 2013 or newer Macbooks, excluding the Early 2013 models. Some have reported success by replacing the wifi carrd with a newer type, but have exprienced other issues as a result.

So when you signed out of iCloud and then signed back in on both your phone and mac it started working?

I currently can't get it to show up at all in my Security & Privacy page. I have 2 Factor Authentication on, I signed out and back in on both devices, & everything should be working but the option for Auto Unlock with My Apple Watch doesn't show up at all.

Can anyone explain the differences between the late 2012 iMac and the 2013 iMac. I have the late 2012, the first year the mac had the rounded back, and the checkbox does not show up in my Security settings. The documents specify that it is supported on 2013+ models. So what is so different?

There is one important connectivity difference between the "Late 2012" and "Late 2013" iMac lines.

All of these systems have an SDXC-capable SD card slot, four USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports -- which support Mini DisplayPort output for two external displays up to 30" (2560x1600) as well as "Target Display Mode" via Thunderbolt -- one Gigabit Ethernet port (10/100/1000Base-T), one "headphone/optical digital audio output (minijack)" that also supports the Apple iPhone headset with microphone, and support for Bluetooth 4.0.

Looking for critical difference between "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)" and "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2013)" if this is going to be the deciding factor for Apple's delineation for auto-unlock.

On my "MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)" I have never seen the checkbox to enable the auto-watch unlock. Up to beta 6 on everything now, no dice.

<editorial on options>

But the consolation prize is that Kane's MacID (http://apple.co/2bfxZlv) smokes Apple's implemenation badly. MacID (iOS + macOS app) not only unlocks after thumb print confirmation on phone or button confirmation from secured Apple Watch, it prompts for and enters your password into those infernal dialogs where you are stuck providing administrator access to Keychain constantly during the day of Mac'n. More secure with the confirmation option, more utility in the system overall, works with your iPhone!, and or your iPad!! and or your Apple Watch and any Mac with BT4LE. I was amazed that Apple came out with such a weak implemenation considering Kane's product. They should have "bought Kane" like they did for the SoundJam guys (the beginning of iTunes).

I have the same issue (MBPr Early 2013) issue is we only have a Wifi n module. Apple Watch "time of flight" connectivity only communicates with AC Wifi devices from Mid 2013 onwards. Hardware's insufficient for us lot unfortunately.

Same here. I have Two-Factor Authentification enabled, my mac is trusted, iphone & apple watch also. Activated the option from security & privacy but it just says "unlocking mac with apple watch..." and after 10 or so seconds it promts me to enter my mac password.

I also got something strange. After adding my mac password in the sec&privacy it requested to pair with my watch, but the watch did not recieve any notification... A guidline would help Using macbook pro mid 2015

Same boat here too. Got it setup with Late 2013 iMac (at the fifth attempt) but it tries to unlock and just ends up at the password box. On the mid-2015 MacBook Pro I also have, it keeps saying it can't even find the watch.

I was able to get this to work for me (mid-2015 15" Pro), however I had to enable 2-step authentication via my iPhone. When I tried on the Mac, it wanted me to change passwords and for some reason I couldn't get past that point. Once I did that, I was able to check off Unlock with Apple Watch. I never received any request to pair anything.

However, I turned off the feature because I noticed that once I unlocked once via the Apple Watch, I was no longer able to access anything to do with the internet (Safari, Chrome, FTP, etc...). I had to restart the system to resolve.

One thing I realized is that when I go to my devices on my Apple ID it was showing my Apple Watch still running 2.1 rather than 3.0. I simply Removed My Apple Watch From My Account which forced it to remove it and then readd it a few minutes later, & then it was showing it was running watchOS 3.0 & then the option to use Auto-Unlock showed up in Security & Privacy after a few minutes.

Not showing up for me either no matter what I do. MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

I've tried logging out of iCloud and back in on my Mac and rebooting. I initially had two step verification on, so I had to disable then and then setup to factor authentication, so I don't know if that has anythign to do with it. I have tried everything I can think of to spur it into seeing it all. I even changed my passcode on my watch from 4 to 6 numbers in case that was a requirement.

I'm also not seeing the setting. If I search for "watch" in System Preferences, I see "Allow Apple Watch to unlock the computer setting. Setting hidden if watch not paired." Clicking on that takes me to Security & Privacy | General.

I'm not sure what "paired" means. The watch is paired with my iPhone, but I don't know of any way to pair it with my Macbook Pro.

I can't get past the two-factor authentication part. I was told that I had to go to appleid.apple.com and turn off two-step authentication, then go to iCloud settings and turn on two-factor authentication. I did the first step, but in iCloud settings, I get an error message that it can't be turned on because "there was a problem connecting to iCloud."

EDIT: I should have tried signing out and back in before posting. That solved the issue. That being said, it would be great if Apple made the process more stable before the official release. Now I'm having the same issue as others, where the Unlock with Apple Watch checkbox is now gone, but I will try the recommendation of signing out on the iPhone/Watch, signing back in, then waiting a while.

EDIT 2: The option randomly came back, and was enabled successfully. I tested it and it unlocked my Mac just fine. Now I just hope it stays that way.

I got it working by setting the 2FA in the Mac preferences then signing out and back in again on all my devices. You should also check the iCloud security screen on your iPhone to make sure it recognizes that 2FA is enabled. Once those are all in sync, reboot everything.

My issue is that having it actually unlock your Mac is a hit and miss. So far I have tried to show it off to 3 people here at office and on ALL 3 occasions it didn't work. However, when I tried it just before, it worked fine.

Of course when it doesn't work there is no way to tell why. I wish there was a way to determine why it didn't work so we can help solve the issues.

In order for this to be useful it MUST be more reliable.

I have noticed that in order for it to work your phone needs to be close by and UNLOCKED.

I had phone phone in my pocket locked with a passcode (like it usually is) and the auto unlock did not work. I tried several times. However, once I took my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it the auto unlock for the Mac started to work. Is this feature "unlock your mac with your Apple Watch" or "Unlock your Mac with your iPhone"?

Try unchecking handoff under System prefs> general> "Allow handoff between this mac and your iCloud Devices. Then restart your computer. Once the computer reboots, check that preference back on. This worked for me.

Was working great for me for a few days. Now it tries to unlock, times out, and presents the password box. Tried all the usual toggling settings, rebooting devices, etc. and it consistently fails to actually unlock now.

Yeterday it started unlocking my rMBP 15" when I walked nearby, even with the lid closed, so overall maybe it's not a bad thing that it isn't working for me right now...

Does anyone know why when Macbook is connected to Wi-Fi, Auto Unlock feature works fine, but does not work when connected to Ethernet? Never would have thought that the Internet Connection seems to be the reason why you can use this feature or not... So long as you allow 2FA on your devices to authenticate who is actually trying to log into the MacBook, which I assumed is the reason why we need to have 2FA working, not base it off of how you're connected to the Internet... Any thoughts or answers?

Wifi is part of it. It appears this feature uses both bluetooth as well as wifi to communicate with Apple Watch for the handshake to occur. (this is part of the reason that earlier Mac's aren't supported - appears there's a feature there that Apple needs for this functionality).

Me, I'm trying to get it to work on my 2008 MacBook Pro, but I have to get the 802.11AC usb wifi adapter working under Sierra PB3 first. (yes, I also have a USB Bluetooth adapter that supports 4.0LE as well). Hoping the two of them will make this work for me. (then I'll do the same hack for my 2012 mac mini)

Watch unlock appears to require authentication through the same iCloud service used by Back to my Mac. I was able to get it working again by disabling and then re-enabling BTMM under the iCloud prefs. I note I have to do this especially often on my rMBP after changing locations (and the associated changes to Wifi and BTMM authentication).

Dissapointing to see that the late 2012 iMac models aren't deemed worthy of the feature. The interesting thing is though that if you search Apple watch in System Preferences search bar it shows the option is coded into System Prefs, just not something you can enable. Really hope they allow that in release. I don't beleive there to be any technical reason why they could not.

I received this reply to bug #27738928. Create a new bug report and attach your sysdiagnose output if it is still happening for you.

Apple Developer Relations11-Aug-2016 12:37 PM

Please provide sysdiagnose output from the affected system(s). Please collect this either while the issue is occurring, or as soon after as possible (for example, take it after a reboot if necessary). Please let us know what you were doing that caused the issue, so we can correlate your actions with the diagnostic output in sysdiagnose. Please try to focus on one or two actions that cause an issue. If you perform many different actions, it will be difficult for us to determine which action caused the sysdiagnose output. Note the date and time of the failure also, please. sysdiagnose Instructions: https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/profiles-and-logs/

I am able to pair but i am unable to unlock... all I get is that "unlocking with Apple Watch" and then it times out and reverts back to the Password box.

getting frustrated....

****UPDATE*****

Okay after a lot of messing around by removing two-factor, re-implementing two-factor, removing passcode from watch then putting it back on, rebooting watch, iMac & iPhone 6s then reimplementing unlock with watch feature multiple times some how with all of that it now works,

So for you guys and girls out there having this issue maybe give this a go.

Right after I changed my Apple ID Password the previously working Apple Watch Auto Unlock feature did not work and unckecking and re-checking the 'Allow Apple Watch to Unlock you Mac' checkbox in System Preferences/Privacy Settings relulted in an intermidably spinning animation until a dialog finally said the Mac could not communicate with the Watch. The cure was to unpair the Watch and re-pair it, setting it up as a new watch; setting it up from a backup did not work.

I don't know if this situation relates to the reason(s) for similar situations above but the method may be worth a try.

I'm very confused here. All requirements here are ok but can't turn on auto unlock since the box isn't even there. Handoff ok, wifi ok, 2FP ok in all devices (applewatch series 2, McbookPro early 2015, Iphone 6 ), all systems up to date, tried sign in and out Icloud account with them all. Strangely at WIFI information screen there's no support to auto unlock. Mcbook is brand new, less than 30 days of use. Any further ideas? Thnx!

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